A country road, a tree, Jo Baker, (sound recording)

When war breaks out in Europe in 1939 Samuel Beckett, a young, unknown writer, journeys from his home in neutral Ireland to conflict-ridden Paris and is drawn into the maelstrom. He experiences the hardships yet stubborn vibrancy at the heart of Europe during the Nazis' rise to power; friendships with James Joyce and other luminaries; a quietly passionate devotion to the Frenchwoman who will become his lifelong companion; secret work for the French Resistance and narrow escapes from the Gestapo; from occupied Paris to the countryside; and the rubble of life after liberation. And through it all a uniquely brilliant mind struggles to create a language that will express his experience of this shattered world

When war breaks out in Europe in 1939 Samuel Beckett, a young, unknown writer, journeys from his home in neutral Ireland to conflict-ridden Paris and is drawn into the maelstrom. He experiences the hardships yet stubborn vibrancy at the heart of Europe during the Nazis' rise to power; friendships with James Joyce and other luminaries; a quietly passionate devotion to the Frenchwoman who will become his lifelong companion; secret work for the French Resistance and narrow escapes from the Gestapo; from occupied Paris to the countryside; and the rubble of life after liberation. And through it all a uniquely brilliant mind struggles to create a language that will express his experience of this shattered world